Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates to the field of automatic feeding and sorting of items. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to the automatic singulation of articles from a bulk stack of articles.
Description of the Related Art
Articles, such as items of mail, are frequently provided in bulk and must be sorted into individual articles or items for processing or routing. This sorting into individual items, or singulation, can be done automatically by placing a bulk stack of items or articles into a feeder. However, frequently, articles to be sorted are flimsy and must be supported while in the feeder. If the stack of articles in the feeder is not positioned correctly, or if it slumps, the singulation process may be slowed down or hampered with errors, such as picking more than one article at a time.